15 



allum's time the schools at St. John's 

 seem to have depended chiefly on pri- 

 vate enterprise for financial support. 

 A pupil boarding at one of the schools 

 paid at the rate of £30 sterling per 

 annum. The Hudson's Bay Co., Sir 

 George Simpson states, gave an an- 

 nual grant of £100 sterling to help to 

 maintain a school at St. John's, but 

 possibly this was used in behalf of 

 the boys' school. 



The Davis School. 



But, although a change thus took 

 place at St. John's the young ladies of 

 the north were not left without an in- 

 structress, and the arrival of Miss Ma 

 tilda Davis, whose early connection 

 with the Northwest gave her a deep 

 interest in its welfare, was most op- 

 portune. Miss Davis was the daughter 

 of a Hudson's Bay Co. officer who was 

 lost in a mysterious way on an island 

 in Hudson Bay, where he had landed 

 when on his way home to England, 

 accompanied by his family. His two 

 eldest daughters had already gone to 

 England for their education and the 

 other members of the family after 

 their father's death made their home 

 at St. Andrews, Red River. The two 

 Miss Davises in England seem to have 

 been well trained in all the feminine 

 accomplishments of the day and they 

 were employed as governesses, it is 

 said, in some of the prominent famil- 

 ies of England. One of the sisters 

 died and the other then resolved to 

 rejoin her family in Red River. It is 

 said that Miss Matilda Davis had al- 

 ways cherished the ambition of being 

 well educated so that she might re- 

 turn to Red River and open a school 

 for the benefit of her countrywomen. 

 She commenced a .school for young la- 

 dies at St. Andrews in the old family 

 residence, building an addition to it 

 for a school room and accommodation 

 for her assistants. She had a Miss 

 Lane as governess. At a later date 

 Miss Davis erected a large stone resi- 

 dence for a boarding school, in which 

 enterprise she was assisted by a grant 

 from the Hudson's Bay Co. of £100 

 sterling a year for three years. Many 

 of the native ladies now resident in 

 Red River were educated under Miss 

 Davis' care and they speak 

 of her with the utmost af- 

 fection. Her school was con- 

 tinued till after the transfer and she 

 died in the year 1875. The scene of her 

 funeral is described by one of her pu- 

 pils as most affecting. As many of her 



former pupils as could be gathered to- 

 gether were present to see her laid in 

 her last resting-place, following the 

 bier two and two in procession. Bishop 

 Machray preached the funeral sermon 

 and paid a high tribute to Miss Davis' 

 missionary influence and educational 

 qualities. 



Authorship. 



The literary industry of this period 

 was considerable and quite a number 

 of books were published that are still 

 regarded as authoritative. Mr. Alex- 

 ander Ross contributes three promin- 

 ent works : 



The Red River Settlement, 1S50. 



The Columbia River, 1849. 



The Hunters of the Far West, 1855. 



Sir Geo. Simpson's "Voyage Round 

 the World," was published in 1847. 



The Journal of the Rev. John West 

 in 1824. 



"Notes on the Flood," by Bishop An- 

 derson, 1854. 



Twenty Tears' Service in the Hud- 

 son's Bay Co., by John Maclean, 1849. 



History of Red River, by Hon. Don- 

 ald Gunn, written much earlier, but 

 not published until 1880, sometime 

 after his death. 



"Red River," by Joseph Hargrave, 

 the son o>f James Hargrave, already 

 spoken of, not published until 1871. 



Adam Thorn, LL. D., the judge and 

 philosopher of Red River, from 1839 to 

 1854, was a prominent literary figure 

 and a lecturer of these early days. 



Archbishop Tache wrote a sketch of 

 the Northwest, published in 1870, and 

 another work on Missions belonging to 

 a later time. 



In 1859 was established the "North- 

 Wester" newspaper, by Messrs. Buck- 

 ingham and Coldweii, from which, al- 

 though it was hostile to the Hudson's 

 Bay Co., Joseph Hargrave quotes 

 largely in his book on Hudson's Bay 

 Co. affairs. 



Time and space have prevented us 

 from including mission work among 

 the Indian tribes in our subject and 

 yet there are evidences of culture 

 among the mission workers in the 

 Northwest that should not be over- 

 looked. 



The Rev. Archdeacon Hunter and 

 Mrs. Hunter, as collaborators, trans- 

 lated the prayer book and part of the 

 New Testament into the Cree language 

 besides compiling a Cree grammar. 

 Mrs. Hunter, who was a (Miss Ross, 

 from Red River, also translated a part 

 of the English church hymnal into 



